A Japanese government-funded private foundation was launched in South Korea on Thursday to compensate women who were sexually enslaved by Japan more than seven decades ago, a move aimed at ending one of the neighbors' long-running diplomatic feuds stemming from Tokyo's past colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

The formation of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation is the result of the landmark deal reached on Dec. 28 to once and for all end the row over the sexually enslaved women, euphemistically called comfort women. 

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forcefully conscripted to serve in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II while the Korean Peninsula was under the colonial occupation of Japan. Japan colonized the peninsula from 1910-45.

Japan expressed an apology for its colonial-era atrocities under the deal and committed to providing 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) to financially compensate the wartime victims and restore their dignity.

Only a small number of the estimated comfort women have come forward as victims of the sexual servitude, and there are only 40 confirmed South Korean victims alive today.